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Hi all,

Just as PowKiddy RGB30 is the perfect handheld for PICO-8, I was wondering which handheld could y'all recommend to run Picotron, including its desktop and the entire development experience. I mean a device that has an option to connect a Bluetooth keyboard & mouse. Thinking about some "recreational coding" gear :-)

P#147102 2024-04-22 10:33 ( Edited 2024-04-22 10:34)

If money is not an issue maybe something like the Steamdeck?

P#147104 2024-04-22 11:34
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I just installed picotron on my clockwork uConsole, had to use box64 since there's no support for arm but it seems to run decently enough, I still haven't tried to do actual coding on it.
I'm pretty annoyed by the trackball, very imprecise and I see it's going to be annoying to draw sprites with it, plus navigation through the code is going to be annoying because there's no scroll wheel.
Also the resolution does not really map in pixel perfect mode so it's either going to look smaller than the screen or blurry scaled up.

I've also been using picotron on my GDP Micro PC from time to time, that one is a pretty nice experience, it runs full windows (or full linux), trackpad is ok, keyboard is ok and thumb typing is pretty nice, would recommend except it's starting to become kind of outdated, I'm looking at the GPD Pocket 3, which is supposed to be its successor with better and more recent specs, but more expensive and slightly bigger

@EDcreative
The steam deck is going to be extremely annoying to work on, the onscreen keyboard is unsuitable and will cover most of what's going to be typed, you'd have to use external mouse and keyboard but then you are limited to working on a table

P#147131 2024-04-22 17:15 ( Edited 2024-04-22 17:19)
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As for now, without official arm support, only windows-based like ROG Ally, Ayaneo and others

P#147193 2024-04-23 14:04
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@maleficmax works great on arm64 through box64

P#147202 2024-04-23 18:33
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I think the best option for now is a small laptop with 1080p screen (perfect resolution ratio). That's because there are many applications focused in desktop-grade environment, and very few fullscreen games. There is no "sploretron" either. But in the future I believe something like ANBERNIC RG503 (Linux, OLED 16:9 perfect pixel resolution, dual joystick, dpad centric, ABXY + LR) is going to be the best handheld for Picotron

P#147204 2024-04-23 19:37
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I'd recommend getting a Steam Deck, but Picotron unfortunately doesn't scale perfectly on 720p.

It would require a different resolution, which is not supported:

P#147326 2024-04-25 20:55

Thank y'all for the tips! :-)

P#147385 2024-04-26 16:48

Chromebook !!!

Just works perfect using Linux (tested amd64).

:)

P#147642 2024-04-30 13:10 ( Edited 2024-04-30 13:11)

@MaddoScientisto

I've been looking into the uConsole specifically for this and when doing my research into it, it looks like there's a new firmware update for the kayboard part of the handheld (which includes the trackball) that allows the trackball when the keyboard is in Fn mode with the Fn key. Don't know if that's on your's by default but it looks like it would be easy to flash with instructions on their github for it.

Also, how is the screen for Picotron full screened? cause I've seen that it won't allow it to be integer scaled. I imagine it looks okay though due to the size of the screen, but would like to hear your thoughts on it.

P#147738 2024-05-01 20:40

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